May 3, 1920.] AgricuUuml Gazette of N.S.W. 323- 



Methods and Time of Applying Fertiliser. 



Fertiliser attachments are fitted to most of the modern maize drills, and- 

 with regulators can be made to sow from | to 3 or 4 cwt. fertiliser per acre. 

 Very few definite tests have been made to determine whether the application j 

 of fertiliser at seeding time is better than at any other time, but nearly all 

 the increases for fertilisers quoted here have been obtained by such an appli- 

 cation. It has been shown that top dressing maize with nitrate of soda has 

 been tried unsuccessfully for the most part on the coast, but the experiment 

 is being continued on the tablelands, where it may meet with success. 



On the western slopes, where the question of soil moisture is the most 

 important one in maize growing, it may be found that fertilisers applied to • 

 maize at planting have an undesirable effect in producing a vigorous growth 

 of stalk which will be less able to withstand the dry weather it may 

 experience later in the season, and thus the yield may be actually reduced 

 by the fertiliser. Especially will this apply to soluble nitrogenous fertilisers,, 

 but it may also happen with superphosphate. For this reason the quantity 

 of fertiliser applied to maize in these districts should be much smaller than 

 that recommended for the coast, except, perhaps, in the case of fodder maize, . 

 where a heavy stalk growth is desired. 



Some experiments to determine whether broadcasting the fertiliser or 

 distributing it with a wheat drill before planting maize is any better than* 

 sowing in the maize drill in the ordinary way, have given negligible results 

 in Kew South Wales, the yields being about the same from either method. 

 In North Carolina* an average of 2-1 bushels per acre increase was obtained 

 in favour of fertilising in the maize drill as compared to broadcasting. It 

 may be that when heavy dressings of fertiliser are given it would be prefer- 

 able to distribute it evenly by the wheat drill, but in those districts in this 

 State where there is likely to be a wheat drill on the farm (that is, the 

 tablelands and westei-n slopes) it has been found that light applications of 

 fertiliser give the best r-esults. 



Owing to absorption by the soil particles, very little downward movement 

 of plant food like phosphates and potash takes place, and if these fertilisers 

 are applied to the surface soil at a shallow depth a good pai-t of them must 

 be out of action in the cultivated surface soil mulch, except in a wet season 

 when the maize roots, especially in the later stages of growth, approach 

 nearer the surface. By putting these fertilisers in deeply better results 

 might naturally be expected, for not only would they then be down where 

 the plant roots feed, but they would stand more chance of being in moister 

 soil and being thus made more available. That there is something in the 

 deep application of fertilisers has been proved in North Carolina,f where 

 fertiliser applied three times as deep (4 to 5 inches beneath the seed) as is 

 ordinarily applied just before planting maize gave an average profit of 88 

 per cent, greater than applying the fertiliser in the drill at the ordinary 



* North CaroHna Agr. Expt. Sta., Circ. 8 (1913). 

 t North Carolina Agr. Expt. Sta., Bull. 229 (1915). 



